Flushable sanitary napkin having a reinforcing and securing strip therein



Oct. 29, 1968 D. K. GEORGE ETAl. 3,407,814

FLUSHABLE SANITARY NAPKIN HAVING A REINFORCING AND SECURING STRIP THEREIN Filed Oct. 18, 1966 INVENTORS'. DONALD K. GEORGE-3nd KENNETH C. HOKANSON ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,407,814 FLUSHABLE SANITARY NAPKIN HAVING A RE- INFORCING AND SECURING STRIP THEREIN Donald K. George and Kenneth C. Hokanson, Greenwood, S.C., assignors to Riegel Textile Corporation, Ware Shoals, S.C., a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 18, 1966, Ser. No. 587,550 4 Claims. (Cl. 128-290) This invention relates to a fiushable sanitary napkin as hereinafter defined and more particularly to a flushable sanitary napkin having a reinforcing and securing strip between the overlapping edges of a fiushable wrapper of creped cellulosic fibrous sheet material for securing the overlapping edges of the wrapper together. The reinforcing and securing strip is adapted to restrict elongation of the creped wrapper, provide additional strength to the wrapper, and to form and hold the body contacting face of the sanitary napkin in a relatively smooth longitudinally curved configuration conforming generally to the natural body contour of the wearenwhen placed in position thereon to provide a greater surface area in contact therewith for optimum absorbence and comfort.

It has been the usual practice in the construction of sanitary napkins to utilize an, interior pad of absorbent material and an outer wrapper normally comprised of an open mesh woven gauze material, bonded carded web or other relatively inextensible textile material. These outer relatively inextensible wrappers have been either simply folded over the pad in such a manner that the edges thereof overlap which serves to hold the material in place by means of friction at the overlap or are secured or glued in place at the overlapping edges by various means, such as a glue line, a self-adhesive filament, a thread or filament coated with adhesive, etc. These types of securing means are utilized purely for holding the overlapping edges of the wrapper material in place around the interior pad and do not provide the above-described functions of the reinforcing and securing strip of this invention, as more fully discussed below.

As contrasted with this more conventional type of sanitary napkins, utilizing a relatively inextensible fabric material as the wrapper, the sanitary napkins of the present invention are constructed with a flushahle wrapper of creped cellulosic fibrous sheet material disposed around and enclosing an interior pad of dispersible absorbent material and defining overlapping edges.

With the use of this type of flushable wrapper, as contrasted with the above more conventional non-fiushable wrappers, the cellulosic fibrous sheet material, due to its paper-like texture, must be creped to obtain the softness and drapability required for use as a wrapper on a sanitary napkin. However, due to the creped nature of this wrapper material, certain problems are presented in its use in a sanitary napkin which are not present in the more conventional non-flushable sanitary products utilizing a wrapper 'of relatively inextensible textile material.

These problems include an inherent tendency of the creped wrapper to elongate when placed in tension, as would occur during normal use on the body of the wearer, and an inherent weakness in the wrapper material due to fiber slippage, particularly when moist with body fluids of the wearer. Therefore, the need arose for a reinforcing means in this type of flushable sanitary napkin. The prior art conventional constructions did not suggest solutions to these problems inasmuch as the problems were not present.

In accordance with this invention, it has been found that these problems may be overcome by providing a reinforcing and securing strip between the overlapping edges of the fiushable wrapper which comprises an inextensible,

Patented Oct. 29, 1968 fiat, ribbon-like, strip coated with an adhesive for securing the overlapping edges of the wrapper together. This reinforcing and securing strip must be relatively inextensible under the normal forces placed thereon when worn in position on the wearer and it is noted that this feature would not be necessary in the glue lines, selfadhesive filaments, threads or filaments coated with adhesive, etc. utilized as a securing means in the prior more conventional sanitary napkins. The flat, ribbon-like configuration of the strip has been found important to pro vide a sufiieiently larger surface area for gripping the overlapping edges of the wrapper than would be provided with a thin, curved, string-like, or otherwise configurated strip.

When this reinforcing and securing strip is disposed between the overlapping edges of the wearer on one face of the sanitary napkin, it is preferred to utilize this face as the outer face of the napkin to be placed away from the skin of the wearer and for this purpose the strip may be colored in any suitable manner to indicate the side of the sanitary napkin to be placed away from the skin of the wearer. When this is done and the napkin is secured in position on the wearer, such as by the usual belting, the reinforcing and securing strip provides an additional and very important function not heretofore attained of forming and holding the interior face or the body contacting face of the sanitary napkin in a relatively smooth longitudinally curved configuration conforming to the natural body contour of the wearer to provide a greater surface area of the napkin in direct contact with the curved contour of the body of the wearer providing optimum absorbence and comfort.

Some of the features of this invention having been stated, other features will appear as the description proceeds, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a reduced perspective view of a sanitary napkin having a reinforcing and securing strip according to this invention; t

FIGURE 2 is a full scale cross-sectional view of the sanitary napkin of FIGURE 1 taken substantially along the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a reduced perspective view of the sanitary napkin of FIGURE 1 showing the same in a relatively smooth longitudinally curved configuration conforming generally to the natural body contour of the wearer; and

FIGURE 4 is a full scale cross-sectional view of the sanitary napkin of FIGURE 3 taken substantially along the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3.

Referring now to the drawings, there is illustrated a sanitary napkin, generally indicated by the reference numeral 10, constructed according to this invention.

The sanitary napkin 10 comprises an interior pad 11 of desirable fibrous absorbent material adapted to absorb body fluids. This interior pad 11 may be layered, cut, folded or otherwise formed to provide this function. In one commercially advantageous form, this interior pad 11 is formed from a cut, fluifed, fibrous wood pulp batt 14 having a cut layer of creped tissue paper 15 superimposed thereon. The batt 14 and the creped tissue paper layer 15 are folded with a multiple reverse fold extending in the longitudinal direction of the pad to form a multi-layer interior pad 11, as shown in FIGURE 2. The interior pad 11 may also include a conventional moisture barrier 16 formed of any suitable liquid impervious material and disposed between the folded over layers, as illustrated in FIGURE 2.

The sanitary napkin 10 further comprises a flushable, fluid permeable wrapper 20 of creped cellulosic fibrous sheet material disposed around and enclosing the interior pad 11 and defining longitudinally extending overlapping edges 22. The wrapper material comprises bonded, hydrophilic, flat, ribbon-like, aerated, regenerated cellulose fibers of the generally collapsed, multi-cellular form to provide high dry strength, wet hang and dispersibility for the wrapper when agitated in a large excess of water to render the same completely flushable in an ordinary Water closet. An improved form of this wrapper material is disclosed and claimed in copending application, Ser. No. 572,929, filed Aug. 17, 1966, noW U.S. Patent No. 3,370,590 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention and reference may be had thereto for further details of this material.

The sanitary napkin further comprises a reinforcing and securing strip 30 disposed between the overlapping edges 22 of the wrapper and, preferably, extending between these overlapping edges along the entire longitudinal dimension of the sanitary napkin 10. The reinforcing and securing strip comprises a generally inextensible, thin, fiat, ribbon-like strip coated with an adhesive for securing the overlapping edges of the wrapper together. When the strip is secured in position between the overlapping edges it will act to restrict elongation of the creped wrapper and to provide additional strength to the wrapper to restrict the inherent tendencies of the creped wrapper to elongate when placed in tension, as would occur during normal use on the body of the wearer, and overcome an inherent weakness in the wrapper material due to fiber slippage, particularly when moist with body fluids of the wearer, as pointed out above.

This strip may be constructed of any suitable relatively inextensible material, such as a woven textile material, an extruded plastic filament (nylon, polyester, etc.), or any other suitable material which will provide the desired inextensible and strength features to restrict the normal tendencies of the creped wrapper material to elongate and the inherent weakness therein. The strip may be coated with any type of suitable adhesive, such as a hot melt glue or the like, for securing the overlapping edges of the wrapper material together.

This reinforcing and securing strip provides an additional feature, which is illustrated in FIGURES 3 and 4, of forming and holding the interior face or the body contacting face, generally indicated by the reference numeral 35, of the sanitary napkin in a relatively smooth longitudinally curved configuration conforming to the natural body contour of the wearer to provide a greater surface area of the napkin in direct contact with the curved contour of the body of the wearer providing optimum absorbence and comfort.

This longitudinally curved configuration is accomplished when the napkin is pulled into a generally curved configuration around the body of the wearer since there will be greater forces applied to the outer face of the napkin than will be applied to the inner face of the napkin and since the reinforcing and securing strip is located on the outer face of the napkin to render the same substantially inextensible. These forces will be applied on the outer face along a longitudinal center line conforming to the position of the reinforcing strip such that this portion of the sanitary napkin will be pushed inwardly to in turn form a longitudinall curved configuration on the inner face of the napkin which will more nearly conform to the natural curved contour of the body of the wearer. In this manner, there will be more surface area on the interior 5 face of the sanitary napkin in contact with the curved natural body contour of the wearer providing optimum absorbence and comfort to the wearer.

Various modifications and changes may be effected in the foregoing description without departing from the scope of this invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A flushable sanitary napkin comprising:

(a) an interior pad of dispersible fibrous absorbent material adapted to absorb body fluids;

(b) a flushable fluid permeable wrapper of creped cellulosic fibrous sheet material disposed around and enclosing said interior pad and defining longitudi nally extending overlapping edges, said wrapper comprising bonded, hydrophilic, fiat, ribbon-like, aerated, regenerated cellulose fibers of the generally collapsed multi-cellular form to provide high dry strength, wet hang and dispersibility for said wrapper when agitated in a large excess of water; and

(c) a reinforcing and securing strip disposed between said overlapping edges of said wrapper and comprising a generally inextensible, thin, flat, ribbon-like strip coated with an adhesive for securing said overlapping edges of said wrapper together, said strip being adapted to restrict elongation of said creped wrapper, provide additional strength to said wrapper, and form and hold the body contacting face of said sanitary napkin in a relatively smooth longitudinally curved configuration conforming generally to the natural body contour of the wearer when placed in position thereon to provide a greater surface area in contact therewith for optimum absorbence and comfort.

2. A flushable sanitary napkin, as set forth in claim 1, in which said reinforcing and securing strip comprises a plastic strip coated with a hot melt glue.

3. A flushable sanitary napkin, as set forth in claim 1, in which said reinforcing and securing strip extends between said overlapping edges along the entire longitudinal dimension of said sanitary napkin.

4. A flushable sanitary napkin, as set forth in claim 1, in which said reinforcing strip is colored to indicate to the wearer the side of the napkin to be placed away from the body when worn.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,067,961 1/1937 Williams 128290 2,296,341 9/1942 Fourness 128290 2,578,664 12/1951 Beery et al. 128290 2,773,503 12/1956 Brownlee et al. 128290 3,095,878 7/1963 Bassett 128290 3,203,419 8/1965 Joa 128290 3,370,590 2/1968 Hokanson et al 128-290 CHARLES F. ROSENBAUM, Primary Examiner.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE PATENT OFFICE Washington, D.C. 20231 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3 ,407 ,814 October 29, 1968 Donald K. George et a1.

It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 2, line 29, "coutour" should read contour line 55, "desirable" should read dispersible Signed and sealed this 3rd day of March 1970.

(SEAL) Attest:

Edward M. Fletcher, Jr. E. JR.

Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. A FLUSHABLE SANITARY NAPKIN COMPRISING: (A) AN INTERIOR PAD OF DISPERSIBLE FIBROUS ABSORBENT MATERIAL ADAPTED TO ABSORB BODY FLUIDS; (B) A FLUSHABLE FLUID PERMEABLE WRAPPER OF CREPED CELLULOSIC FIBROUS SHEET MATERIAL DISPOSED AROUND AND ENCLOSING SAID INTERIOR PAD AND DEFINING LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING OVERLAPPING EDGES, SAID WRAPPER COMPRISING BONDED, HYDROPHILIC, FLAT RIBBON-LIKE, AERATED, REGENERATED CELLULOSE FIBERS OF THE GENERALLY COLLAPSED MULTI-CELLULAR FORM TO PROVIDE HIGH DRY STRENGTH, WET HANG AND DISPERSIBILITY FOR SAID WRAPPER WHEN AGITATED IN A LARGE EXCESS OF WATER; AND (C) A REINFORCING AND SECURING STRIP DISPOSED BETWEEN SAID OVERLAPPING EDGES OF SAID WRAPPER AND COMPRISING A GENERALLY INEXTENSIBLE, THIN, FLAT, RIBBON-LIKE STRIP COATED WITH AN ADHESIVE FOR SECURING SAID OVERLAPPING EDGES OF SAID WRAPPER TOGETHER, SAID STRIP BEING ADAPTED TO RESTRICT ELONGATION OF SAID CREPED WRAPPER, PROVIDE ADDITIONAL STRENGTH TO SAID WRAPPER, AND FORM AND HOLD THE BODY CONTACTING FACE OF SAID SANITARY NAPKIN IN A RELATIVELY SMOOTH LONGITUDINALLY CURVED CONFIGURATION CONFORMING GENERALLY TO THE NATURAL BODY CONTOUR OF THE WEARER WHEN PLACED IN POSITION THEREON TO PROVIDE A GREATER SURFACE AREA IN CONTACT THEREWITH FOR OPTIMUM ABSORBENCE AND COMFORT. 